


the luck of a kennedy

by idolrapper



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Friends With Benefits, Law School, M/M, Pining, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-10-02 04:00:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17257181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idolrapper/pseuds/idolrapper
Summary: Johnny’s a whiz at hypothetical personal injury claims, can list thirty different ways to get away with murder and is able to recite the UN Charter preamble by heart, but he can’t come up with a remedy for wanting someone who will never be his.





	the luck of a kennedy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [taeyomi (buttercream)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/buttercream/gifts).



> happy new year ♡

In Johnny’s orientation two years ago, the Dean of Harvard Law School told them they’d likely have been top of the class throughout school. They were used to cruising by on smarts. “Well, I have news for you,” he’d declared, his hard gaze skimming over every inch of the auditorium, “Here, everyone’s smart. So it’s time to start thinking about what kind of smart you want to be.”

Ten, Johnny finds, isn’t smart. Not smart in the way Johnny wants and/or _needs_ him to be.

Case in point:

“Hey, Johnny!” Ten calls out from across the lecture theatre. He’s tilting over the row of seats below him, one hand cupped around his mouth like a megaphone, and his arm squished into a harried-looking mature age student. The image is startlingly like that of a soldier leaning out of a train window, yelling out one last farewell to his lover. Ten, however, doesn’t say goodbye. He says, rather unromantically, “You going to court tomorrow?”

Johnny can’t help but to smile a crinkled smile at Ten, though he does shrink into his seat in the first row and squeeze his phone out of his pocket to shoot Ten a reply instead of yelling back: _yes i am and for the love of prof burke who rly wants to start this lecture would u sit down?_

He turns back to see if Ten’s sat, and he has, eyeing Johnny over the top of his Macbook, already set up to take notes/surf Facebook/shop for vibrators (like he did last time Johnny was next to him which is precisely why Johnny resigns himself to the first row now, a permanent Ten-free zone. He has five, including the library.) Johnny, medieval as Ten thinks it is, prefers pen and paper, and he takes out his notebook dedicated to Contract Law as Burke starts the lecture.

 _nice. i’ll see u there._ Five seconds later, Ten adds, _;)_

 _idk what that winky face is meant to imply_ , Johnny texts back, _but whatever it is, NO!!!_

_so u don’t wanna hear abt my idea with the judge’s wig and gavel? :’(_

_i want to be admitted to the bar thx_

_ur no fun_ Ten replies, _also uhhhhhhh 12 o’clock_

The light of the projector immediately above Johnny is shadowed by Burke looking down at him, an eyebrow raised. Johnny gives him a nervous smile, placing his phone on the desk. He hears a short bark of laughter from Ten’s side of the room.

“Let’s say I entered into a contract with,” Burke is saying, gesturing at Johnny. Johnny hurriedly provides his name. “Johnny here, to provide him a service. In our case, that would be this lecture. What would he have to provide in return, for an enforceable contract?” 

“Consideration,” half the room drones. 

“Right,” Burke says, and he reaches down to pick up Johnny’s phone. Johnny jerks forward as if to grab it back, only just pulling himself back in order to resignedly cringe from his seat, the preview of Ten’s last text replaying in his head ( _i may have a judge kink, fckn sue me_ ). The effect this entire moment (Burke, waving Johnny’s phone around as he plays out the analogy, Ten most likely red-faced, hiding behind his screen if Johnny cared to look) has on Johnny is like his insides being squeezed back and forth, like a fucking accordion. 

“Would Johnny’s cell phone be adequate consideration? Does it just have to be money?” Burke asks the room.

“Anything of legal value can satisfy the element of consideration,” Ten answers candidly, a grin in his voice, “They say even a peppercorn would be sufficient.”

“That it would be,” Burke says, coming over to Johnny to set the phone back down. He winks at Johnny as he does so. “The peppercorn metaphor was first brought up in the case of Chappell and—”

 

 

“You’re a fucking menace,” is the first thing Johnny says to Ten afterwards.

Ten shrugs, sidestepping the open palm Johnny aims for his shoulder. “I didn’t think Burke’d take your phone when I sent that message.” He grins, stepping into Johnny’s space, “But it’s hot, don’t you agree? What if he read it out loud? Then _everyone_ would know what we get up to.”

“You don’t want everyone to know,” Johnny says.

“Moot point,” Ten retorts lightly. He reaches up to touch Johnny’s cheek, the skin hot beneath his fingertips. “You’re still blushing, babe.”

“Babe?” Johnny repeats. Behind his back, his hand’s mangling his 8AM coffee cup. Being in Ten’s presence, he’s already well overdue for his 11AM. 

“Thought I’d try it out, see if it sticks,” Ten says, watching Johnny’s face. He pouts at the small wrinkle between Johnny’s brows. “What, you don’t like it? Too weird? How about—” Ten tugs on Johnny’s arm, pulling him down to rasp in his ear, “You loved it when I called you _sir_ last semester, the way your cock twitched inside me was legit adorable.” He laughs, and this conversation, like every borderline romantic (but mostly dirty, _always_ dirty) conversation they’ve ever had, is like an egg being cracked over Johnny’s head, cold yolk trickling down his spine. “I had fun last night. I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah? I’ve got Property now.”

“See you,” Johnny grits out, and Ten’s floating away, just out of reach.

 

 

Last night, at Harvard’s nearest bar, Johnny met someone. He fucked Ten, yeah, but he also met someone. A Jaehyun Jung, one L, grandson of the famed Justice Jung (Johnny asked, _twice_ because Jaehyun was hesitant to advertise it. “No shame in nepotism, Jaehyun Jung,” Johnny told him, “Hey, someone should translate that into Latin and make it our motto.”) and Ten’s new roommate.

“Your roommate’s sweet,” Johnny says, voice breathier than it should be talking like this, about someone he barely knows. His back slams against the bathroom wall. “Let’s go out there and talk to him again? We really shouldn’t be doing this,” Johnny tries, knowing full well it’s futile. 

Ten’s small hands are bunched around the lapels of Johnny’s blazer, and he reels him in for a kiss. He licks into Johnny’s mouth, after a grumbled, “Don’t talk about another guy when I’m about to put your dick in my mouth.”

Johnny grins at that, breaking their kiss to shove Ten onto his knees. Ten glares up at him, and Johnny roughly drags his thumb over Ten’s bottom lip, grazing over his teeth. “Show me then, Tinkerbell.”

And Ten, Ten can put on a show.

 

 

Johnny’s known for running the orientation BBQs. Legend has it a hot dog, a squirt of ketchup/mustard, and a personalised chat with Johnny Seo and your one L worries will melt away, nothing but earth beneath polished Oxfords on pristine Harvard lawns. Or at least, that’s what Jaehyun heard.

“I give great hugs too,” Johnny divulges as he grabs the mustard bottle. Jaehyun’s fingers are curled around the edge of the table, nails scratching against gingham tablecloth, and he worries his bottom lip between his teeth, clearly torn between response A (“Nice.”) or response B (“You should show me sometime.”). 

He does neither, saying, “Ten told me you did.”

Johnny sputters a laugh, in tandem with the mustard that squeezes onto his hand. “Ten? He goes around peddling my cuddling skills?” 

Jaehyun turns a little pink, but he laughs too. “He said you’re big, so it’s extra cosy. Consuming, was what he said.” He grabs a napkin quicker than Johnny, and takes Johnny’s hand between his, wiping it clean. His hands linger. “I don’t think he was talking about hugs?”

“Ah.” Johnny picks up the hot dog and places it atop Jaehyun’s palm. Regretfully, he says, “No, I don’t think he was.”

 

 

“Did you tell Jaehyun about us?” Johnny asks, sprawled out on his bed. Ten’s grinding down onto his cock, still half-clothed. (Johnny had found him lounging on his floor after the BBQ, legs kicking back and forth, a pair of round, tortoiseshell spectacles perched on his nose as he flicked through Johnny’s textbook for his Space Law elective.) He shakes his head, choking out a little sigh when Johnny reaches down to loosely jerk him off. “Let me put that another way then. You implied to Jaehyun that we’re sleeping together. Why?”

“Felt like he should know, as my roommate,” Ten says, voice lilting. His head is thrown back, eyes squeezed shut and throat bared, looking impossibly porcelain. “Since you’ll be over a lot.”

“He’s the first person you’ve ever decided to tell,” Johnny clips, fingers pressing into the marble of Ten’s hips and drilling up into him _hard_. “You spooked the kid, Ten.”

In one delicate rotation, Ten looks back down at Johnny. There’s a treacherous smirk tugging at his mouth, that of a sphinx. “Good,” Ten says, “I don’t like to share.”

 

 

The first time Johnny hooked up with Ten was at Yuta’s party after finals, second year, right after Johnny’s paper on International Law. Ten had pressed Johnny up against a bathroom sink as he gently toyed with the zipper of his jeans, hesitant as Ten could ever be, and Johnny had giggled against Ten’s throat and said, “You know, I was up at 3AM making a chart.”

“What kind of chart?” Ten asked, in a single exhale. There was vodka and raspberry on his breath, but neither of them had much to drink. Only enough that ending up in each other’s orbit to a Whitney Houston song blasting through the house brought them here, planets (finally, Yuta would say) crashing. 

“Who you can and can’t kill in a conflict situation,” Johnny expanded, laughing boisterously as his fingers tickled along Ten’s ribs, feeling for the edge, to crack him open. “A fucking chart, Ten.” 

Ten reached up to cup Johnny’s face, and his eyes weren’t wet, but there was a wetness to them. Like a green, still lake. “And who can you kill, Johnny?”

“Anyone hostile,” Johnny said, lips dragging along Ten’s jaw. 

“I’m not hostile,” Ten said.

“But you’re not exactly friendly right now, either,” Johnny murmured, his palm anchoring itself on the small of Ten’s back. 

Ten grinned. “No, I’m not.” His lips parted. “So kill me, Johnny Seo.”

 

 

Whenever Johnny sits in on court, he always feels like he needs a glass of water. “It’s adrenaline,” Ten whispered, as Johnny’s hand crumpled loudly around a plastic bottle. Johnny didn’t feel placated despite chugging the whole thing in under thirty seconds, and inexplicably, as prosecution brought out their first witness, he started to feel heat slither between his legs. “And maybe a bit of fear,” Ten said, gesturing at Johnny’s grey, tented suit pants. “I’m Ten, by the way. Just started.”

Now Ten always has a thermos of chamomile tea ready for Johnny when he turns up to a 9AM aggravated assault hearing, tucking it into Johnny’s hand and reaching around to give him a hug. “For lil’ John,” Ten says. He looks up at Johnny’s face, pressed into Johnny’s side and a smile playing at his mouth, and Johnny feels himself ache at how domestic it all is. “You okay?”

Johnny drags his eyes away from the dainty slope of Ten’s nose, and scans over the courthouse he’s grown so familiar with, the high ceilings and chapped leather seats, grey light pouring in through slanted windows. “It’s my last year,” Johnny says, “I’m gonna pop an anxiety boner every time I go to court and I won’t have your tea when I graduate.”

Ten beams, giving Johnny’s chest a pat. “Is that your way of saying you’ll miss me?”

“You caught me,” Johnny laughs, though it’s more than that. It’s his way of saying he needs Ten.

 

 

Jaehyun’s sitting on his bed when Johnny comes over to bring Ten his Equity notes from last year. He’s halfway through a book on some first year subject Johnny’s already suppressed, a Doctor Who mug nestled in his sheets, a coffee stain spilling out towards his bare feet. Ten is sprawled out on the floor, like he usually is, lavender-scented candles arranged around him in a pentagram shape, phone angled to capture his sultry gaze and exposed collarbones. Jaehyun’s glancing at Ten every few seconds, brows pinched in both bewilderment and irritation. Johnny can relate.

“Isn’t it a little soon to introduce Jaehyun to your broom and cauldron?” Johnny says, tossing the notes onto Ten’s dark red sheets, which merely looking at starts a Pavlovian tingle along his spine. 

“Nah, Jaehyun’s cool,” Ten says, sitting up onto his knees. “He helped me do a love spell last night.”

Johnny looks at Jaehyun, who shrugs, the same cheeky glint in his eyes that Ten gets. Ah, all hope is lost then, Johnny thinks, mostly fondly. He’s already in Ten’s gingerbread house, no trail of breadcrumbs for Johnny to follow. “On who?” he asks.

Ten and Jaehyun share a look. “No one,” Ten chirps.

“I don’t think it worked,” Jaehyun says airily, stretching forward to right his mug. “That person already seems to be in love.”’

Ten claps his hands together, making Johnny jump, gaze tugged away from Jaehyun’s cheeks, the baby fat pronounced as he pouted down at his textbook. “Anyway!” he exclaims, “Get out of here, Seo, you have a test to study for. And thanks for the notes!”

“Send me those selfies you were taking as payment.”

“Check your inbox,” Ten says with a wink. 

Johnny rolls his eyes, walking backwards to the door. “Bye, Jaehyun.”

“See you,” Jaehyun says, giving Johnny a short salute without looking up.

 

 

Johnny tries not to dwell too much on who Ten put a love spell on. He isn’t the jealous type, never has been, but Ten knows how to push too far, rile Johnny up until Johnny’s shoving him face down into his mattress, hands rough around Ten’s hips.

Before Ten, Johnny used to have a crush on his Torts TA, like literally everyone else in the class. And when they became friends and Ten learnt of this crush (“Why is your face so red? Are you okay?” he’d asked when Johnny came down to the icy depths of the law library after running into his TA in the foyer) he teased him endlessly until _he_ took Torts and Johnny was barraged with a series of text messages that went like this: _holy shit he smirked at me i asked him to explain something after class and the way he looks at u??? felt like he was staring into my soul omgggg i’m blushing so hard. can we have a threesome?_

 _SEE!!!!!!!!!_ Johnny replied, feeling a little hot and bothered knowing Ten was hot and bothered, _why a threesome? i didn’t call dibs u can have him if u want_

_i’d want u there_

_???_

_even without him. i don’t mind if we did it again u know_

_oh?_

(And Ten visited Johnny’s dorm room that night, hips swivelling in Johnny’s lap and mouth pressed up against Johnny’s ear, whispering all the delicious things he’d thought in Torts, painting such a pretty picture that Johnny had to bend Ten over, pounding into him from behind, while he stuffed his fingers into Ten’s mouth so he could imagine there was another person there. 

Allowing Ten to get to him like that, get him in his bed and not just Yuta’s bathroom counter, was Johnny’s first mistake. 

His second was replying, in his post-coital lovesick daze, “Yeah, I’d love that,” when Ten asked if he’d like to keep doing this.)

 

 

For a second, Johnny allows himself to think that it might be him. Already in love, Jaehyun had said. Ten’s never realised, always making dry remarks about how it’s time that Johnny found someone else to make him tea in the morning (no one makes it like Ten) or how tired Johnny must be of Ten’s hideous body (untrue, and Ten was fishing for compliments) or how he doesn’t want kids which sucks because Johnny wants five (he’d compromise for one if it meant marrying Ten). He fits the bill, that’s for sure. But there’s one crucial point Johnny can’t quite believe: that Ten is in love with him too.

 

 

Doyoung Kim invites Johnny out for drinks after Space Law, stopping him in his tracks as Johnny’s speeding down to his next class, Contracts with Ten. They’re not exactly friends, not like Johnny and Ten are, but they’ve always had mutual respect for each other, born out of 1) making it to Jessup Moot semis together 2) simultaneously rolling their eyes (Doyoung) and scoff-grinning (Johnny) at everything Ten does. 

“Do you know Justice Jung’s grandkid?” Doyoung asks, hand gripping Johnny’s wrist, face wearing that agitated look he always seems to have on when Johnny spots him flying around campus, thick binder in hand. Johnny suspects the invitation for drinks was merely just a clumsy segway into scoping out Johnny’s connections. A law school classic.

“Jaehyun?” Johnny says, leaning against the wall. He reaches over to tuck a slab of printed legislation that is precariously hanging out of Doyoung’s bag back in. 

“Yeah, that. I heard he wants to run for Korean Association Pres,” Doyoung whisper-shouts, “He’s been here two seconds and he wants to boot me out! No one does the job better than me!”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” Johnny says, gently pulling his arm out of Doyoung’s hold. “Do you want me to bring him tonight so you can talk to him?”

“Okay, since you offered,” Doyoung says, mouth widening in a shark-like smile. Johnny blinks. No, no, Jaehyun’ll be fine. “Make it clear you offered. I’d never invite an usurper for drinks.”

“Of course, Doyoung,” Johnny reassures him, “See you tonight.”

“I don’t wanna talk to him,” Doyoung calls out as Johnny starts to make his way down the corridor, “I just need to see if he’s as cute as he is on Facebook so I can sabotage his posters.”

“I’m sure, Doyoung!”

 

 

Watching Jaehyun dance around Doyoung is a little like watching the one that got away. No, wait. The one that could’ve been, in another time, another universe, another Johnny. Watching Ten down lemon drop shots next to him is like watching the one that flipped your life upside down and stayed to watch it burn, holding your hand as they did so. 

“Why are you here anyway?” Johnny asks, stroking the back of Ten’s hand. “Thought Doyoung stopped inviting you out after—” Ten gave him a way too sexually-charged lap dance and then accidentally stepped on Doyoung’s non-prescription Versace glasses and called him a stuck-up half-baked Hermione Granger. It wasn’t worth saying out loud. 

“He’s desperate for all intel on Jaehyun,” Ten says, gesturing at where Doyoung’s hand is around Jaehyun’s throat, mouth against his ear, saying something that makes Jaehyun pale. “They’d be good for each other, I think. Jaehyun keeps talking about how he’s so scared of Doyoung he keeps having sexy dreams about him.” Ten looks at Johnny, smiling softly. “A shame. I know you liked him.”

“I didn’t,” Johnny objects, face immediately heating up. “He was just sweet.”

“Is that your type? Sweet?”

“Personally I like them a little sourer,” Johnny says, edging into Ten’s space. He can already taste the lemon on Ten’s breath.

Ten’s eyes dart to the side. “Here?”

“I don’t care,” Johnny murmurs, “I really don’t.”

Then, to Johnny’s surprise, Ten cups Johnny’s face and kisses him, wet and chaste, before pulling back. “I—let’s go home? We should talk first.”

 

 

They don’t talk, when they get to Johnny’s single, because the minute Ten drops onto Johnny’s sheets he passes out. Johnny just sighs, tugging off Ten’s precious Eastern art Doc Martens and curls himself around Ten’s small frame. The next morning there’s no indication that Ten even remembers their conversation - non-conversation, really - when he slowly wakes up, stretching his arms above his head, and grumpily eyeing Johnny from where he’s sat at his contraband Ikea dining table with a cup of fresh coffee. 

“Can’t you pretend to not be a morning person,” Ten mumbles into his bicep, “For my sake at least?”

“No, because we work better this way,” Johnny says, immediately regretting it when Ten’s eyes widen a bit. He soldiers on, “You help me stay awake at night to study and I help you start the day.”

Ten seems to be in his own head, muttering to himself, “When did we stop having sex every hour…”

Johnny ignores that, gently calling out, “So… cuddles or coffee, Ten?”

Ten perks up. “Both?” 

Johnny goes over to the bed, placing a mug in Ten’s hands and shuffling down the bed until his head is in Ten’s lap. Ten cards his fingers through Johnny’s hair, humming some indie folk song Johnny somehow knows the words to. He may not want to change for Ten, but he wants to be the first thing Ten sees, every morning for the rest of his life, and he still has no idea, even with the way Johnny’s staring up at his sharp pixie-like face, if Ten knows that yet.

 

 

“You won’t believe what I just walked in on,” Ten says, plonking down next to Johnny in Contracts a week later. He’s taken to sitting in the first row with Johnny, the warm hand he permanently rests on Johnny’s thigh the only thing stopping Johnny from sending Ten back to his previous spot. He talks so… much…“There I was innocently entering my room to grab my laptop bag and I’m immediately greeted with Jaehyun bent over on _my_ bed, counting Doyoung’s spanks.”

“Can we not talk about this here,” Johnny murmurs, watching Professor Burke enter the lecture theatre. 

“It took us like a month to become kinky and we still don’t do that!” Ten whisper-shouts. Then he sighs, slumping in his seat, “I never knew Jaehyun’s body could twist like that. You should’ve seen how pink his cheeks - _both_ \- were. I could’ve just eaten him alive.”

“Ten,” Johnny urges.

“It sucks that I spent the start of semester being jealous, we could’ve fucked him together,” Ten continues, “Do you think if I steal him away from Doyoung he’d legit try to murder me?”

“And I dare say we’d all try to help him cover it up,” comes a third voice. Above them Professor Burke is raising an eyebrow at Ten. Ten grins but his shoulders curl in on themselves a fraction. Johnny mostly wants to die but he plasters on an apologetic smile too. “Is this a conversation you’d rather be having in the privacy of your own dorm?”

“No, sir,” Ten says, “I mean, yes but later.” He turns to Johnny for a second. “Later?”

 

 

They tumble into bed, Ten with his mouth on Johnny’s neck and Johnny with a handful of Ten’s ass. Johnny finds himself laughing over what happened in class again, already over the embarrassment enough to find the whole situation ridiculous in a way only Ten can achieve. “Sometimes I can’t believe you got into Harvard,” Johnny voices as Ten sucks Johnny’s earlobe between his teeth.

Ten pulls back on Johnny's lap. “What, like it’s hard?” He swats at Johnny’s arm. “I got in ‘cause I’m smart.”

And maybe it’s that word, how much frustration Johnny’s endured over Ten's obliviousness, his lack of filter, the fact that he'd gotten so close to having an answer to all of this a week ago only to be grasping at thin air, but Johnny squeezes his eyes shut and says, “If you were smart, you’d realise I'm fucking crazy for you.”

There’s a pause. Then Johnny feels Ten cradle his hand around his jaw, thumb stroking over the corner of his mouth. “I’m smart,” Ten says quietly, “Well I became smart. I’m just a coward.”

Johnny opens his eyes. “If you are, then so am I.”

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Ten whines.

Johnny very nearly sputters. “I didn’t think - you talk about other boys while I'm inside of you!”

Ten snorts, before taking on a smirk, and rolling his hips down in a slow grind that nearly makes Johnny’s eyes roll to the back of his head. “Only ‘cause you get rough and I like it! You know what, Seo?” Ten says, hips relentless and eyes full of mirth and something else Johnny’s too nervous to think about, sending waves and waves of heat through Johnny’s stomach. “ _You’re_ not smart. You must be an absolute idiot not to realise I’ve had a big fat crush on you since that goddamn orientation barbecue.”

“You wouldn’t be the first,” Johnny teases, once he manages to work through the dryness in his throat, “I kinda just ignore the heart eyes.”

“I hate you,” Ten says. He then shakes his head, looking down. “It’s just - I get intimidated by you sometimes. You’re so put together, you have dozens of jobs lined up for you after law school and I’m just a mess. I don’t know what you’d want from me besides this.” And to make his point he leans down to kiss Johnny hot on the mouth. It’s the most pitiful kiss they’ve ever shared.

“I want you,” Johnny whispers. “I don’t want someone like me. I don’t need put together, I need someone who makes me laugh myself into a fit, someone who’s gonna stay up until 2AM with me making a Best Of Funny Justice Holmes Quotes, someone who’d attempt a love spell on me, someone who’ll try to slip some weed into my tea before I leave for work. No, we’ll probably work together, ditch the the corporate firms and become the Bonnie and Clyde of ambulance chasers.”

Ten’s eyes widen. “You knew? About the love spell?”

“I just realised,” Johnny laughs. “What if it backfired, huh? What if I stopped loving you?”

“Spells don’t work that way!”

“You’re fucking crazy, Ten,” Johnny scoffs, but he’s smiling. 

There’s the barest hint of hesitation on Ten’s face before he stretches forward and presses their foreheads together, humming, “And so are you.”

**Author's Note:**

> smash that kudos button if you wish this was johnny/ten/jaehyun/doyoung ot4 :^)
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/nohyuck) / [cc](https://curiouscat.me/millennium) ♡


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